March 16, 2024 - Bright nose with fruity notes, peach, minerals, and quite little autolytic character. Good acidity on the palate with orange flavors, lemon, citrus zest, herbs, and a bit of stone fruit. Good finish. Very nice wine but it suffered significantly from being poured next to the 2014 Ursules which was on a completely different level. This had more fruit but overall it was just less interesting.
March 7, 2024 - Zuni Cafe Chicken Night (Brad's Place, St. Paul, MN): Light gold color. Drank a couple glasses over an hour plus. Fresh with bright fruits, pear and cherry, crystalline minerality, lifted and precise, as it takes on weight and more toast shows over time. I like Craig's word of regal, sums it up nicely. 93(+)pts.
March 7, 2024 - Brad's Winner Winner Zuni chicken dinner night. BB,KB,ML & I. Kevin's btl This is an interesting contrast to the NV Charles Krug BdB. More nervy & serious. A bit more standoffish but very impressive. Complex and likely gets even better with another year or 3 of btl age. Regal & formidable. What a fun flight!
November 23, 2023 - Beautiful, aged character. Bronze color in the glass. Soft mosse. Apple, Carmel, chocolate and toast notes. Absolutely lovely.
August 27, 2023 - Very pleasant nose with notes of lemon, lots of minerals, apple, chamomile, and just a hint of brioche. Nice acidity with more lemon flavors, grapefruit, a bit of riper fruit, and minerals / crushed rocks. Nice finish. This is a lovely wine that has aged quite well.
August 12, 2023 - Pop and pour. Same disg info as prev btl. and similar notes. Final btl, but given what these sell for now, I had a hard time popping this. Oh well, excellent, but I'm sad to be priced out (which means, emphatically not $200+/btl excellent).
May 1, 2023 - A night at the office (RL Restaurant, Chicago IL): The nose is open-knit and highly expressive with deep tones of warm dough, red apples, fresh bakery notes, lemon peel, red berries, baking spices, pears, and some brioche. This leans more autolytic than the 16 Les Ursules did, but it is also in full harmony on the nose. The Medium bodied feel is silky and satin with integrated, high acidity. This is drinking in a beautiful spot. There is a lot to love as it shows off all sorts of elegance and refinement with a delicious undercurrent of autolytic notes.
January 7, 2023 - Subdued with pear and citrus. Quiet and lovely.
December 23, 2022 - V 2014, disgorged 2016. The oldest Val Vilaine I've had. Excellent intensity and depth, and beginning to show some evolution to the otherwise quite primary palate. Much more brioche and cream than you see in the fresher bottles. Good but not revelatory. Wish I had waited longer.
October 1, 2022 - V.14 disg Apr 2016. So good. Notes from Day 2 open. On the nose: melon, peach, soft vanilla and coconut cream. On the palate: soft mousse, amazing density, melon rind, cream. A stunning wine with even this age.